CATEGORIES
Hanya Yanagihara's Haunted America
Her new novel experiments with alternative versions of history, upending personal and national destinies.
He Walked the Line
Johnny Cash was beloved by Americans who could agree on little else. Was he too eager to please?
The Freshman
After January 6, Peter Meijer thought he could help lead the GOP away from an abyss. Now he laughs at his own naïveté.
Imagine the Worst
How to head off the next insurrection
January 6 Was Practice
Donald Trump is better positioned to subvert an election now than he was in 2020.
Dangerous Prophecies
The assumption that civil war is inevitable in America is inflammatory and corrosive.
Unwrappers' Delight
Americans can’t resist the lure of elaborate packaging.
The Autocrats Are Winning
If the 20th century was the story of liberal democracy’s progress toward victory over other ideologies— communism, fascism, virulent nationalism— the 21st century is, so far, a story of the reverse.
The End Of Trust
Suspicion is undermining the American economy.
The Miraculous Sound of Forgiveness
In his thrillingly transgressive opera The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart pulled off his most amazing musical feat.
How Self-Reliant Was Emerson?
Transcendentalism, the American philosophy that championed the individual, emerged from an exceptionally tight-knit community.
The Singularity is Here
Artificially intelligent advertising technology is poisoning our societies.
The Martial Art I Can't Live Without
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has been compared to chess, philosophy, even psychoanalysis. But its real appeal is on the mat.
Several People Are Typing
Slack made it easier to crack jokes and easier to stir up trouble. Employees love it. Bosses don’t.
Unhappy Returns
What really happens to all the pants that don’t fit
Snowbirds
Photographs by Naomi Harris
The Antiquities Cop
Matthew Bogdanos is on a mission to prosecute the wealthy dealers and collectors who traffic in the looted relics of ancient civilizations.
Shape-Shifting Animals on an Inhospitable Planet
Lizards’ feet are morphing, squid are shrinking, butterflies’ wings are growing stronger.
In Defense of the Insufferable Music Fan
What we lose when we “like everything”
It Didn't Have to Be This Way
A brilliant account of 30,000 years of change upends the bedrock assumptions about human history.
The Men Who Are Killing American's Newspapers
Inside Alden Global Capital, the secretive hedge fund gutting newsrooms and damaging democracy
The Engineers' Daughter
James and Lindsay Sulzer have spent their careers developing technologies to help people recover from disease or injury. A freak accident changed their work—and lives—forever.
Facebookland
The social giant isn’t just acting like an authoritarian power. It is one.
W. G. Sebald, Usurper of Lives.
Germany’s renowned and morally scrupulous novelist ransacked the stories of Jewish lives for his fictions. Does it matter?
How I Fell for Formula 1
Netflix got Americans like me to finally care about auto racing. The NFL might want to take notes.
The Unwritten Rules of Black TV
For decades, Black writers and producers have had to tell stories that fit what white executives deemed “authentic.” Can a new generation finally change that?
Jonathan Franzen Finally Stopped Trying Too Hard
At last he put aside the pyrotechnics and went all in on his great theme: the American family.
Where Is Our Paradise of Guilt-Free Sex?
Half a century after the sexual revolution, we still haven’t reconciled what we should want with what we do want.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
A new game builds on the addictive appeal of Sid Meier’s Civilization.
Colson Whitehead Subverts the Crime Novel
In a country born of theft, everyone is an accomplice.